Crossing Within Polylingual Families With Contested Structure

Introduction This research seeks to examine crossing within polylingual families with contested structure. I analyzed a scene from the television show Trailer Park Boys in which a three member family interact using the concepts of crossing, facework, and footing, in order to answer my research question. I found that the central character uses crossing as a method of performing facework. As a result of this, he also indicates preference and dispreference to his family members. Theoretical Framework Crossing involves someone speaking in another language, dialect, or pattern which feels distinctly â€Å"other† (Rampton, 2000, p. 54). This can occur in a wide variety of contexts such as first generation Americans using English in a non-English household in order to embrace one cultural system over another. Or, using a different pattern of speech around a significant other’s parents in order to convey positive social values. In the case of the scene I analyzed, the central character’s language is already crossed as he is a white man speaking almost exclusively African American Vernacular English (AAVE). He further uses crossing to interact with his Hispanic girlfriend. As a character, his crossed language is one of his most defining qualities, making him an interesting case study. Because of the character’s use of AAVE as a white man, he can be juxtaposed with ‘Mike’, the person of interest in a study of white teens and AAVE adoption (Cutler , 1999). Mike, like Jamie, the main